Finding the art in the shadows of Philly autumn

Who would not want to be outside this past week?

It was awesome, even during Thursday’s downpours and flash flooding. The torrents of hailstones had their charm — despite the day bringing us the chilliest run of weather this season.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s still autumn, and it’s a wonderful time of the year to be a photographer.

Between assignments in Old City, I took one of my favorite detours, through the historic district. I never tire of walking the exact same streets, as the Founders did, and ended up at a mulberry tree just beginning to show its autumn foliage colors. It’s next to the steel “ghost structure” outlining the spot where Benjamin Franklin’s house once stood. (The tree — despite what tour guides in the city will tell you — is not the same one he wrote about entertaining friends and family under. It, along with his house, were demolished in 1812. The current tree was planted for the Bicentennial.)

I also ended up in the 18th Century Garden, where a single red chokeberry leaf (Aronia arbutifolia) hung onto a branch. The garden showcases plants that were frequently grown in Philadelphia during the 1700s. Lady Bird Johnson, wife of President Lyndon B. Johnson, dedicated the garden to the Founders in 1966.

While wandering between assignments, I also periodically engage in some “street photography.” That’s the genre of capturing real life, people, places, and everyday situations — mostly on public sidewalks.

Besides history — and foliage — in the city in autumn, I also love the low sun and long shadows. Especially among Center City’s skyscrapers, where fellow pedestrians move between light and darkness as if on a stage, the sunlight blasting through curtains of glass and steel like a spot light.

Those words are meant to evoke the Art (with a capital “A”) of classic practitioners of street photography like Henri Cartier-Bresson or Robert Doisneau.

Their photos and those of Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Harry Callahan, and Fan Ho are about expressing a personal vision and interpretation. The main difference between their photos and mine is that intention.

While we all combine composition, candid observation, and timing, I am practicing journalism that I hope will better our readers’ understanding of an event, person, or place. I am trying to illustrate ideas, issues, or incidents in the news, so I usually have a reason why I’m documenting something, other than just for myself.

But every once in a while... those shadows...

I just couldn’t help myself.

Not on the list of street photographers above is Ray K. Metzker, who lived in Germantown with his photographer wife Ruth Thorne-Thomsen. I first became familiar with Metzer’s work right after I came to the Inquirer. He had a major retrospective exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art during the fall after I had spent the previous winter doing a completely different kind of street photography. To this day I feel his presence as I walk the same city, hoping to find, as former Inquirer arts writer Stephan Salisbury said of his photos, “the remarkable in the ordinary and the powerful in the most fleeting.”

I never got to meet him (too young or shy then to reach out, or knock on their door. I was even living just down the road in Mt. Airy at the time), but two decades later we shared gallery wall space (along with 23 other Philadelphia photographers). Unfortunately he didn’t attend the opening, or a later panel discussion where I got to express my admiration.

I also have to mention Scott Strazzante, a contemporary newspaper photographer who moves easily between Art (with that capital “A”) and journalism. Watching and admiring his work in both genres over the years has given me the same kind of inspiration and insight for my own photography as Metzker’s.

Finally, a few other non-street photos from this week. All seen here online for the first time:

And left out of the Week-in-Sports photo gallery, an Eagle winning against a Giant:

The stories with those photos: Kelce Tailgate, Malayshia Allford, Veteran’s Day PFT, Star Wars.

Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: